Our day started very early because Ian had to be out of the house well before 6am to catch a train to Manchester. Not long after we'd finished breakfast we saw the most amazing sunrise over the woods at the bottom of our garden, if you look here you will see the amazing purple colour which lit up the sky!

I also received an order for some of Steve's CDs this morning, and was really interested in the person placing the order because her address was a rectory in an area where a friend of mine lives - in idle curiosity I googled her her name and much to my surprise found that she is an author with her own website and a published novel as well several non-fiction books... now I'm really tempted to buy her book just to see what it's like, if you're interested you can read about it here:

It was really beautiful - even better than the photo - just amazing colours. I could scarcely believe it was real!

The website of the author isn't anything amazing - I just found it exciting to find that she'd written a book and now I'm wondering what it is like...and it sort of created a desire in me to do something more with Safe - wouldn't it be exciting to have a book to sell?! - I'm always really pleased when there are orders for CDs... don't know why, but I always find it exciting!!!

That sunrise is gorgeous. Strangely, another of my flist was on a coach from Liverpool to Manchester and posted about the same sunrise, but without a photograph. So now I know what she was raving about! Will you be trying to capture the same effect in paint?

I had to alter some of the images to get them to settle happily in the animation ... Jen can't see any of my animated icons - well, she can, but they aren't animated. Can Ian sort her out?

I got my scanner for Christmas - and Fireworks. So one of my resolutions is/was to learn to handle photographs. The eventual intention is to create a really superb album from all our old photos, going back to my mother's babyhood. The icons are just practice pieces en route!

I am trying to preserve many of the thousands of photos I have, by scanning them and putting them online in my website, but I find it is a very slow process.I have learned heaps about photo handling and manipulation through the work I've done on my website and Steve's, also through producing the CD sleeves recently...I don't know how to make gifs though - I know Christopher had a programme that let him make gifs at some stage, he could probably show me how... in fact I suspect all the rest of my family know how, perhaps I should ask them!!!

I don't know why Jen can't see animations, we'd need to know what she is running on her pc to figure it out I think...

Glad the sunrise pic was good as evidence, we could scarcely believe what we were seeing either!

I thought a virtual album which I will then transfer to disc - one for us and one for Gail. One of the purposes is to make storage, reference and preservation easier.

I'm using Fireworks but I believe Paintshop Pro does the same job (Gail says it's harder to learn) and I'm sure there are other programs out there! Gail gave me a quick hands-on tutorial at New Year and I've been workingthrough the program's own tutorial notes - easier when you have some idea whatto expect. Icons are just a fun spin-off.

I'm quite excited by all the possibilities but mustn't get too carried away! I have other things to do too!!